the volcano of Mount Semeruon the java island (Indonesia), erupted this Sunday. The country’s authorities decreed a maximum alert in the area and ordered the evacuation of some 2,000 people who inhabit the surrounding areas.
(Read here: Video: the world’s largest active volcano erupted)
“Mount Semeru went from level three to level four” alert, reported the Center for Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation (PVMBG) from Indonesia. “That means the population is in danger and the activity of the volcano has intensified,” PVMBG spokesman Hendra Gunawan told Kompas TV.
Exactly one year ago, this town was also hit by an eruption.
So far there are no victims, but Gunawan advised residents to stay at least eight kilometers from the volcano’s crater.
The authorities also asked people to avoid a 13-kilometre-long area located next to a river in the southeast of Mount Semeru, towards which a cloud of volcanic ash was heading.
Mount Semeruin East Java, is the highest point on the island with 3,676 meters high.
The Indonesian authorities raised this Sunday to the highest level the risk alert in the surroundings of the Semeru volcano, in the southeast of the island of Java, due to the “increased volcanic activity” after the eruption registered this morning, which caused the evacuation of about 100 people.
EFE / Government of Indonesia
ash cloud
Local relief group Irannala Rescue sent the AFP Videos in which a huge cloud is seen rising above the crater until it hides the sun.
In other images, neighboring towns are seen covered in ash. According to the television networks, the surroundings of the volcano were affected this Sunday by the monsoon, mixing rainwater with the ashes.
“A lot of people started coming down” from the slopes of the volcano, Thoriqul Haq, the chief of the Lumajang district where the volcano is located, told Kompas TV. The inhabitants of the two most threatened villages fled, added a spokesman for the local rescue services.
After the eruption, the internet was cut off and the telephone network had faults, according to an AFP journalist. The volcano’s last eruption, exactly one year ago, killed at least 51 people.
Mud and ash flows engulfed entire villages and nearly 10,000 people had to flee their homes. Another eruption took place two days later.
CARLOS JOSE REYES
INTERNATIONAL SUB-EDITOR
TIME
*With AFP
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